Nightmare
by That Wise Guy
Summary: During their travels, Ash suffers from nightmares. What was supposed to be a peaceful night at the Pokemon Center ends up causing Ash to have another nightmare. What can he do and what's making him have these nightmares? One-shot. Amourshipping.


Hello and welcome to a one-shot of mine! I've always wanted to write an Amourshipping story, but never got the chance to make one. Sadly, I don't think I can make stories as I don't have the time or patience for chapters. However, one-shots I can do! I hope you all enjoy the one-shot! I hope to create more one-shots with this pairing sometime soon as I like it a lot, more so than previous other shippings. This one-shot can take place anytime within the XY anime series, but I'm preferably placing it sometime after Serena got her redesgin as I like to imagine her with that as she talks to Ash.

Oh and can someone explain to me the whole point of a disclaimer? It's redundant to even have one since we all know we have no rights to the franchise or the characters, but through the legality of fair use and the fact we're not _selling_ our fanfiction for profit means we don't have to worry about any sort of copyright infringement. Again, it seems redundant that people have to notify others they don't own the franchise.

Other than that, let's begin the one-shot!

* * *

He gaps!

He jolts up!

Nothing happens…

He sighs.

It was a nightmare. It was only a terrible nightmare… that's all it was. He looks around to see if anyone had woken up from his small episode and thanked heavens above as no one did. He looked to see that Pikachu was still sleeping soundly, probably dreaming about ketchup. He wants to rub Pikachu's head, but he knows he'd wake up his partner and doesn't want it to worry for him.

Ash sighs yet again, he's been having the same nightmare for the past week now. He hides it all under his façade as he doesn't want his friends to worry over him. The one time it slipped, he joked to everyone that he was probably hitting puberty or something. They all had a good laugh, which he was thankful for. No need to have them worry over him.

He sits up and realizes his arms were shaking. He was afraid. He needed something to calm him down.

Making sure no one would hear, he slowly got off the bed he was in and slowly left the room. The Pokémon Center at night is rather eerie oddly enough. The dim lights and narrow hallways give it a rather horror movie setting. He snorts lightly and goes downstairs to the dining area to get a bottle of water from the vending machine.

"Bottoms up," he stated as he drank from the bottle and enjoyed the cold water splash down his throat. He felt dehydrated every time he ever had that nightmare.

"Ash?" he jumped as he heard Serena's voice. He turns to see her staring at him curiously, but he notices she's worried as well. Does she know?

"Oh, uh, hey, Serena!" he smiled in an attempt to lighten the mood, "I didn't know you were up. Did I wake you?"

She hesitated to answer and he knew he did, "Oh, uh… sorry 'bout that. Guess I was too loud?" he chuckled lightly. His small chuckle died down as she still stared at him worriedly.

"Are you okay?" she asks, hoping for him to answer her truthfully. She knows when he lies, he's pretty bad at it.

"Uh, yeah! I'm fine, Serena! I just needed some fresh air that's all," he smiled at her, hoping she'd find that convincing, but his arms were still trembling! He tried to keep them from trembling the entire time he drank the bottle, but clearly it didn't work as his shirt has some wet spots as he kept shaking the bottle while drinking it.

Her countenance didn't change and she went up to him, grabbing one of his shaking hands, "You had a nightmare again, didn't you?"

He froze. Wait, she knew?

She held one of his hands with both of hers as she stares at him intently, "I've known for a while… we all have, Ash." Her response shook him up as he pulled away, upset. She frowns at his reaction, this was way too much over a simple nightmare. She went to grab his hand and held it firmly in hers and looks at him once more, "Ash, what did you dream about?"

He stubbornly turns away, not wanting to discuss it, "I don't want to talk about it, Serena. It's nothing."

"It doesn't sound like it's nothing, Ash! Are you afraid?"

Defensively, Ash turns to her with a snarl, causing her to back up a bit, "Afraid? I'm not afraid of anything! I said it's nothing, Serena, so leave it at that!"

"Then why are you trembling? Why are you refusing to talk about it? Why are you so defensive? Ash, it's okay… I'm here to help you. Please, just let me help…" she pleaded as her eyes began to glimmer and his snarl softens as he regrets snapping at her. He closes his eyes and exhales lightly.

He then opens them back and nods, "Fine… I'll… I'll tell you, okay? But, please, it's just between you and me, alright?" She saw her nod as she leads them to some chairs in the dining hall, the lights are kept dim and it sort of set the mood for them to talk privately. He admired her silence, something he wished his previous friends did if he had any issues; they'd further force him to speak instead of just giving him the time to collect his thoughts.

He stares at his hands and notices the shaking has stopped for which he is thankful for. He then glances to see her staring at him with a smile to ease him up. He returns it and begins to speak, "This… nightmare… I guess you can't call it a nightmare as it's not really something I'm afraid of, but… I am at the same time…" he stammered, looking embarrassed to speak on.

Serena just kept giving him the same smile, holding his hand to further give him support. He finds holding her hand therapeutic. He clears his throat before continuing on, "You see… back before I began my journey, there was this man… I guess you can call him my father…"

Although her eyes widened, she didn't speak to interrupt him, but her mind was racing; his father?! How could his father be the reason for his nightmare?! She tightened her hold on his hand and he smiled lightly, "It's okay to talk, you know?"

Blushing a bit, she nods, "It's just… you never spoke about him to us… plus, this is your nightmare and it involves him? I'm worried, Ash."

He smiles at her, 'Caring as always,' he thought admiring her. He presses on, "See… back then, my father was a great man. I think this all happened after the summer camp… my mom and I never talk about it because it leaves us depressed, but for me… it's something that I never told before until now with you."

"You see, Serena… when I was 6… my father committed suicide right in front of me."

She gasped as her eyes widen yet again to the revelation. He saw his own father's suicide?! She feels a lump in her throat and tries to calm down as she mutters, "That's… that's… oh my god, Ash… I'm so sorry!" She notices him looking down as tries not to cry himself.

She kisses his knuckles as he quivers, "It… it was hard, you know? Seeing his face as he hangs himself… He almost stopped once he saw me, but he… he went with it and died right there! I never screamed so hard in my life, Serena! I was afraid! I was 6 when he did this!" He sobbed out, "Six!"

He almost slammed his fist down on the table as he sobbed, "I can still see his face, too! I can see the moment he died clear as day right in front of me! I can't stop seeing it and it hurts me so much! We loved him, but apparently it wasn't good enough! He decided to just quit life altogether and leave my mom and I to suffer!"

She cried silently as well, hearing the pain her crush was going through. She bit her lips as she stood up, causing him to stare at her. She then sat down next to him and turned her body to give him a hug. He graciously accepted it, she nuzzled in to his neck as he did the same. She felt her clothes get wet from his tears, but it didn't matter to her. She held him tightly.

Whimpering, he whispered, "Why would he do this to me?"

She felt her heart ache when he asked that, she didn't know how to respond to it. Was any form of response to it even acceptable? She didn't know the answer to that as well.

"Didn't he love us?"

That question broke her heart completely as she herself began to let her tears fall, imagining if her own mother did that and she was a witness to it. He held her tightly as a life line, he needed to get this out and she was there, ready to help him in anyway.

"I'm sure he did love you, Ash," she whispered to him as he pulled away to stare at her, still sniffing.

"If he did… why would he have done this?" he asked, looking completely vulnerable. She has never seen him this broken. She wanted to fix this. For him.

"I'm not sure, Ash… I really don't, but that was never your fault, or your moms. What he did was selfish to you both, but I'm sure he really did love you. It's just that… depression can hit anyone hard, Ash. It can make them do things without thinking and make them want to end it all while ignoring the pain their loves ones will go through should they… that. He suffered and felt it was the only way out, he probably didn't even want you to see it."

Ash listened to her as he slowly calmed down, although he started to hiccup lightly. She started patting his back gently, "Listen, Ash… I know it won't go away, but… if anything, you can always talk to me. I'll be your rock. I'll always be here for you."

Closing his eyes, he nods as he then sniffs one last time, "Thanks, Serena. It hurts, but I'm… glad I was able to talk to you about it. I'm sorry for getting angry and snapping, I didn't mean to." He looks away ashamed.

She shakes her head, smiling at him and spoke, "It's fine, Ash. I know you didn't mean to, you were afraid of talking about it and I understand that. But please, let me in, okay?" She put her hand on his chest, where his heart is, and looks up at him, "Let me enter and be able to help you."

He stares at her in wonder, "Why?" he asks her. Why would she go this far for him? What makes him special?

She smiles brightly and blushes as she states, "Because I care for you a lot that's why!" She gets up from the chair and helps him up, all with a smile. "You helped me out before and I want to be the one you can come to. I will always be there for you – to support you!"

Still staring at her in wonder, he started to think what she meant to him and how he meant to her. What was this feeling? It felt like a thousand Butterfree were in his stomach and his heart was beating fast. This wasn't from his nightmare, no… it was from her… and he liked it.

She gives out a small yawn and looks at the time, "It's almost 2 a.m," she turns to him with a small smile, "is there anything else I can help you with, Ash?"

He shook his head, smiling, "No, but thanks, Serena. I'm going to stay up for a bit to clear out some thoughts before I go to sleep, okay?"

She nods, "Alright, but if you need someone, you know where to find me," she winks as she heads off to the room.

However, she gasps as she feels Ash's arms wrap around her waist as he lays his head on her shoulder. She blushes as she stands still, before leaning towards him unknowingly, she didn't expect this!

Ash whispers in her ear, "I really appreciate everything you've done, Serena. I promise to tell you everything if anything comes up. Thank you for being here for me. I don't know what I would do without you."

He releases her and she glances at him, but he gives her a grin and a thumps up to signify he was okay now. Smiling, she nods and heads off to bed. Once she enters, Ash realizes he's still dehydrated, but not from the nightmare. This time, it was from his tears. No more crying for him!

He goes to his bottle of water and begins to drink from it, never realizing he stopped trembling.


End file.
